Catfish

Trophy cats: a biological perspective

Chad Holbrook, a fisheries biologist for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources who oversees the Santee Cooper lakes, said biologists use winter gill-net sampling to assess blue catfish populations and, the data shows increasing catch rates from 2016 through 2018. […]

Catfish

A long-time trophy fishery

A 58-pound channel catfish was caught from Lake Moultrie in 1964, setting state and world records that still stand today. While the Santee Cooper lakes provide excellent fishing for numbers of channel catfish, the sizes are no longer extreme and are not typically considered trophy size, even for channel catfish. […]

Deer Hunting

Island delights

Rivers and streams along the coastal plain and in the larger watersheds of the Piedmont and Midlands areas will have high hills within the river corridors, and these hills don’t always flood when everything else in the area is inundated.  […]

Catfish

New kayak gear reviews

It’s a skiff. It’s a dinghy. It’s a tender. It’s a paddleboard. It’s a BOTE … in a bag. Meet the Rover AeroBOTE, the most-portable paddle skiff on the market. It goes from travel bag to BOTE and back again, easy to store, tags along on any adventure, and stands up to the toughest tests on any waterway — and even baggage claim. […]

Hunting

North Carolina’s best bears

Wildlife biologists have a maxim: good habitat translates into more game animals. But the public often misunderstands the rule. It depends upon the adaptability of a species, and no game animal is more adaptive than black bears. It’s why bear numbers are growing in North Carolina’s mountains. […]

Hunting

The best in ducks

North Carolina’s best waterfowl hunting for ducks, geese, swans is in the extreme eastern portions of the state, and public-land opportunities reflect that situation. The region serves migrating birds along the Atlantic Flyway every season.  […]